We were thrilled to see over 150 entries to the photo contest, and we thank all of those who shared their photographs with us. Three winners were chosen by a panel of Schuylkill Center staff.

Winners:

David Sonnen’s landscape shows us a wintery world that is separate from ourselves and yet intricately linked to our history. The gentle light infuses the entire image with a sense of timelessness while the small parts of fencing that appear near the bottom of the image remind us that we are a part of the landscapes we observe.

In Tyrice James’ photograph, a brilliant sense of movement make the image feel present and locates us within the nature we live with. The feeling of having captured a specific moment, as seen in the snow flying through the air, is deeply captivating.

The beautiful observation of nature demonstrated through Mikaela Reeves Larsen’s photograph draws us into the cold of winter while offering hope for spring. Those berries further remind of of the stored food wildlife require to survive the winter, much as we turn to our own stored reserves: living off of hope until spring arrives.

We’re also happy to honor six runners-up. Christina Catanese and Anna Lehr Mueser comment on the runner-up photographs below.

Runners-up:

From Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art:

Lea Gooneratne-Riedi

In the winter woods, we can often find evidence of animals in the landscape even when we can’t see them, and I love that this photo shows an example of that. It implies a story – a bird, or many birds, going about their day in the snow. The movement patterns are traceable to a certain degree, but are mixed and not linear, leaving us to wonder about the details of the story. The framing of the picture doesn’t draw your eye to one focal point, but rather creates an intricate texture that it’s easy to get lost in viewing. Seeing nature often means finding the unexpected in a landscape when you take a closer look, as in this case, the patterns unintentionally generated by feathered friends.

Judith Krasinski

This scene induces a feeling of deep quiet, and the soft quality of the background gives the impression of freshly fallen snow. The solitary figure, small in the landscape, makes me imagine myself in her position – being alone in the snowy woods, which is one of my favorite parts of winter. Compositionally, the photo is also impressive. The uniform colors and textures of the background offset the woman in the landscape; the brightness of the red coat and even the woman’s skin stand out against the white, branching woods.

Ann Kent

The stark contrast of color in this photo – the deep blue and the bright white – and the sharp, clean lines seem to reference the harsher side of winter. Winter isn’t always kind, especially to animals (and, indeed, people) that don’t have places to warm up in or readily available food. There is also a feeling of unsettling displacement in this landscape. It makes you wonder: what is the scale here, and where was this taken? Still, I like the uncertainty about it, and its feeling of total emptiness – not even a footprint in sight – evokes beauty even in its bleakness.

From Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager:

Eric Smith

The soft glow of this photograph draws us into the moment, emphasizing both the beauty of the winter and the deep cold of this season. The photographer seems to have surprised the swan in this moment, capturing it as it withdraws one foot into warm feathers. The bright white of the swan and the glowing orange of its beak are in stark contrast to the dull grey of ice. Everything about this photograph speaks of the cold and of endurance, showing us what winter means.

Mitch Berger

The contrast of warm light and the soft colors of sunset pair beautifully in this photo with the cool blues of the snow and the dark lines of trees and stream. Mitch Berger’s photo reminds me of the joy of discovering something unexpected and beautiful. The sunlight lighting on the trees transforms the scene from beautiful to stunning, each detail vivid and alive, despite quite stillness of the image.

Gretel DeRuiter

This remarkable photograph is at first hard to understand – the ice and frost are striking, the colors incredible, capturing the chilling cold of the season, yet one is at first thrown off by the image. Where is this? What is this? When it becomes apparent that we are looking at a windshield, this image seems to resolve itself and we see the true brilliance of it. This is not only how the photographer sees, pictures, photographs nature, this, ice on the car, is the nature all of us have lived with every day this winter. I loved this photo because it perfectly located us within our environment and brought nature, even cold frosty nature, into the every day.

Pretty soon, we’ll be hearing a lot of what the toad says! In early to mid- March we will start to hear the sound of the American Toad, Bufo Americanus, with its high pitched trill calling for a mate, as they do each spring. Here in Roxborough, at the Schuylkill Center, we’ll be watching and listening during those early spring evenings. When the evening temperature rises to 50 degrees and the ground is moist, the American Toads start to make their journey out of the woods of the Center and towards the Upper Roxborough Reservoir Preserve.

It’s almost magical to see all these toads emerging from the woods. They don’t usually travel until after the sun sets, when there may be fewer predators, and mostly on damp and rainy nights. But when the toads do start to move, there are usually hundreds at a time.

What is it the toads see in this old abandoned reservoir, built in the late 1800’s? Now known as the Upper Roxborough Reservoir Preserve, the site served for many years as a holding basin for drinking water for Philadelphia. As times changed and engineering improved, the reservoir outlived its usefulness, at least as a storage area for drinking water. It serves another very important function: a habitat for wildlife. The shallowness of the basin is the perfect place for toads to come to find a mate and produce offspring! After courtship, the adult toads return to the woods. The steep, brick-lined walls of the reservoir are not an easy path for these small, but determined toads, but their instincts tell them that they must make this journey in order to survive.

It is a difficult journey from the woods across the street, dodging cars and moving up the steep slope to the reservoir, and then down the other side of the reservoir. All this to reach the shallow waters where they will lay their eggs for the next generation of toads.

It will be 6 weeks or so before the tiny “toadlets”, as we affectionately call these creatures the size of your thumbnail, make their way across the road to a permanent home in the woods. In the woods, they serve a very special function in keeping mosquitoes under control for humans!

The Toad Detour project started six years ago when a citizen noted that toads were getting squashed as they crossed back and forth via Port Royal Avenue and Eva Street on their way to and from the Upper Roxborough Reservoir Preserve. This group of dedicated citizens applied for a permit from the Department of Streets to close the roads on evenings when there was significant movement of the toads. The Schuylkill Center has taken over this volunteer project for the past three years. On evenings from March through June, children and adults come out with flashlights to count toads and watch this phenomenon. We place barricades so motorists will take a short detour around the other side of the reservoir, protecting this special toad population

These are just some of the many great photos submitted to the How Do You See Nature contest so far.

Gretel DeRuiter

Nick Guirate

Pamela Dimeler

Sarah Whitman

In Tyrice James’ photograph, a brilliant sense of movement make the image feel present and locates us within the nature we live with. The feeling of having captured a specific moment, as seen in the snow flying through the air, is deeply captivating.

Rebecca Dhondt

Andrea Niggemeier

William Ewing

Bruce L. Wagner

Ann Kent

Eric Smith

David Sonnen’s landscape shows us a wintery world that is separate from ourselves and yet intricately linked to our history. The gentle light infuses the entire image with a sense of timelessness while the small parts of fencing that appear near the bottom of the image remind us that we are a part of the landscapes we observe.

Dianne Blackmore

Shan Collins

William Ewing

There is still time to share yours! Send us a photo by February 27th. Details are here.

During my time at EPA, I’ve learned so much about water protection, from permits to enforcement, from regulations to partnerships, from large national actions to things anyone can do to protect their waters. Managing the Healthy Waters Blog, along with other digital communications, ­­I’ve also thought a lot about how best to communicate the work EPA does in water protection outside our agency’s boundaries. I’ve found that, consistently, our most effective communications have been those that make visible the real impacts of our work, those that connect environmental actions to the things that are most important to all of us, and those that engage people on a deep emotional level, not necessarily a scientific one. And often, it also takes a touch of creativity.

A view of Philadelphia from Camden

In a digital age, there are more ways than ever for us to reach out and connect with the many audiences interested in what EPA does, and more ways to have a presence in communities. Social media and blogs are some of the newest tools in our communication toolboxes – we’re still honing our craft to figure out the best way to use these tools to build the most engagement with our work.

One of the best tools I know of to help make these meaningful connections is art. How many times have you felt your spirit soar while watching a powerful performance, or your mind fill with awe gazing upon a work of art (or, for that matter, a work of nature)? For many of us, just reading about science and large, sometimes overwhelming environmental problems doesn’t always inspire the same excitement. But what if the complementary powers of art and science could be combined? Can environmental science and art be integrated to educate and inspire people to change their perspective and behavior on environmental issues? I think the answer is yes. I think art has amazing potential to connect people with the natural world and their environments in a way that typical presentations of scientific information cannot. From storm drain art to artfully managed stormwater and beyond, the possibilities are endless to use art as an avenue into environmental issues, and an inspiration to get involved.

With the challenges we face in water protection and other environmental issues, it’s more important than ever to communicate about these issues and engage everyone in the solutions. What other creative ways can you think of to communicate about environmental challenges and the possibilities to address them?

Christina Catanese worked at EPA from 2010 – 2014, managing the Healthy Waters Blog and other digital communications in the Mid Atlantic Region’s Water Protection Division. She parted ways from the agency last week to explore more deeply the connections of environmental science, art, and communication as the Director of Environmental Art at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.

In celebration of the opening of Frost in the Environmental Art Gallery, the Schuylkill Center invites community members to send photos to our Winter 2014 Photo Contest.

Submit your winter photos by February 27!

More about Frost:

It is safe to say, this has been a winter of surprises, with temperatures plummeting well below what we usually expect for this region and snowfall far above. This cold is actually at the heart of our upcoming exhibition, Frost. We’re thrilled to welcome two Philadelphia artists to take on winter with a show that runs from February 15 – April 18. Amie Potsic and Nancy Agati delve into the meaning of winter through a mixture of photography, sculpture, and drawing. An opening reception on March 1 at 4 pm offers a chance for the public to see the artwork and meet the artists.

In winter, patterns emerge from the harsh relief of cold temperatures and heavy snow which illuminate the relationship between us and the changing environment we live in. Potsic explains, “I find winter to be particularly seductive as it simultaneously highlights the stark beauty of our environment’s dormant cycle while hinting at the potential growth of spring.” Agati’s work, exploring the ephemeral through use of natural materials, emphasizes the cyclical patterns of the natural world. Agati writes eloquently about the details that are highlighted by winter: “Working in the studio while the snow falls – again. Linear patterns are further defined as I notice the stark contrast of branches against a pallid backdrop.”

Now, it’s your turn to be a part of it: Take your camera outdoors and capture this remarkable winter!

See nature through the eyes of your community

Come out to the Opening Reception for Frost, on March 1 at 4 pm, to see photos submitted to the contest. The three photo contest winners will each receive a special handmade Schuylkill Center mug.

Guidelines

The rules are simple:

The photo must have been taken this winter

The photo must be taken in the Philadelphia area

The photo must be outdoors or feature the outdoors

The photo must be your own creation and its publication may not violate the rights of any third party

Photos must be submitted by 5pm on February 27.

Please note:

No explicit or offensive photos. The Schuylkill Center reserves the right to determine whether a photo is explicit or offensive.

By submitting a photo, you grant the Schuylkill Center non-exclusive rights to reproduce your image. You maintain copyright and you will be credited.

Winners will be chosen by a panel of Schuylkill Center staff.

How to Submit a Photo:

Email your photo to our Public Relations Manager, Anna, at anna@schuylkillcenter.org with the subject line “How Do You See Nature”

Winter provides a simplified, yet inspiring version of the forest we know so well in other seasons. I welcome its cool, calm colors after many weeks of the unrelenting holiday glitz and chaotic pace. In many ways, it is so much easier to proverbially, “see the forest for the trees” in this season. Uncovering the beauty and details of this place during winter is magical. Especially after a snow, the silence paired with the subdued greys and whites removes the sensory overload that can distract in other seasons. Texture, pattern, and form come alive and draw us into the intricacy of our forest.

To me, winter presents a perfect time for observation and curiosity: Many of our wildlife friends have retired or relocated for the season, although evidence suggests that a few remain nearby. I am delighted by spotting tracks on new snow, pondering where they were headed and who they met along the way. Winter birds flitter from one shrub to another to gossip and look for their next meal.

The complex bark patterns and stoic silhouettes of leafless trees stand out against the muted background. Crooked, twisting, and bending lines of Sassafras trees (Sassafras albidum) create a mysterious landscape, as if they were pulled from the Wizard of Oz forest. Beech and oak trees (Fagus grandifolia, Quercus spp.) are easily identified too as they are the ones still holding on to their persistent leaves. Branches creak and groan and scrape against each other in the wind – sometimes at a startling volume. Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) slyly vines its way around trees, displaying its showy red berries while quietly choking and adding unwelcome weight to its host. Brown, dead remains of Mile-a-Minute (Persicaria perfoliata) covering shrubs in open fields remind me of our future springtime battles. One of the few plants providing green color through the winter, the distinctive American Holly (Ilex opaca), seems to be thriving in our forest, as I spot many new seedlings and young trees along the trails.

The last of the Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) fruit, a cone or cup-shaped collection of samaras, are a delicate discovery resting on the snow. As we welcome the New Year, consider donning a few more layers and exploring the underappreciated winter landscape. I guarantee moments of peacefulness and wonder.

Beer, wine, scotch, tequila, even sake all have at least this in common: they come from plants. In her wonderful book The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart explores the dizzying array of flowers, trees, and fungi that we have transformed into alcohol over the centuries.

Join us at the Schuylkill Center on Thursday, January 16 at 7:30 p.m. for a special chat-and-sip event. We’ll talk about and read from the book, and Olivia Carb from Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, that extraordinary Philadelphia distiller, shares their drinks like Root, Snap, and Rhubarb Tea, all from plants. Snap, for example, comes from at least six plants: sugarcane, clove, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, and tea.

And Root, inspired by old birch beer and sarsaparilla soda recipes, includes almost a dozen different plants, including lemons, oranges, allspice, anise, cloves, mints, and nutmeg. But no sassafras—and we’ll tell you why in a moment.

Sassafras grows in abundance here, its snake-like trunks wiggling through the understory. About sassafras, Amy Stewart writes, “Imagine the situation that European colonists found themselves in when they arrived in North America. They brought what food and medicine they could, but much of it was already consumed, or spoiled, by the time they came ashore. They encountered plants and animals they’d never seen before and had no choice but to find out what they could eat or drink. Any berry, leaf, or root could either save them or kill them.

“One such plant was sassafras,” she continues, “a small and highly aromatic tree… The leaves and root bark were put to use as a medical remedy right away… to promote perspiration, to attenuate thick and viscous humours, to remove obstructions, (and) to cure the gout and palsy.”

Old-time sarsaparilla, a precursor of root beer, was made with sassafras, birch bark and other flavors. But in 1960, after discovering that a major ingredient of the plant was carcinogenic and toxic to the liver, sassafras was banned. That’s why there’s no sassafras in Root, but tons of other good stuff.

Come and enjoy a spirited conversation about drinking plants—while sipping the fruits of the harvest.

On Thursday, Americans of all shapes, sizes and colors gather around tables overflowing with colorful cornucopias of food. And whether that table includes cranberry sauce or couscous, tortellini or tortillas, the centerpiece of the meal is likely that quintessential American bird, the turkey.

Consider that turkey, one of our biggest natural neighbors. Likely one of your holiday plates includes an image of the tom turkey, chest all puffed out, strutting its stuff. That’s not how turkeys appear in November. Sleeker, thinner, turkeys are now forming winter single-sex flocks, a tom and its brothers joining a fraternal order of other males. During this first winter, the toms spar viciously and violently to establish, yes, the pecking order, and a rigorous, fiercely contested one at that. They peck, wrestle, and strike with wings, feet and head until exhausted, and he who fights longest and hardest is the winner. To him go the spoils of war: the right to mate in spring.

For when the winter flocks break up, the brothers stay together. They pick clearings in the forest to strut their stuff, gobbling and fluffing like hyperactive mummers, calling attention to themselves while attracting harems of females. The bumps atop their heads turn various shades of reds, whites and blues—they are, after all, patriotic—and their wattles flap while their snoods bounce around: they have a face only a mother—and hens—can love. And when the hens arrive, only the big brother—top of the heap—mates, top gun mating with multiple females to spread his strong genes throughout the pool.

It’s not known whether or not Pilgrims and Native Americans dined on turkey that first Thanksgiving. But the Pilgrims knew about turkeys, encountering them in England, of all places. You see, the Aztecs domesticated the Mexican subspecies around 800 B.C., and Spaniards introduced the bird to Europe, where it came to England in 1550, and by the Pilgrim’s era was the centerpiece of large feasts held by the wealthy. The turkey we eat today is still a descendant of the Mexican subspecies—not the native North American bird we see at places like Pennypack up in Huntingdon Valley.

Oh, one more turkey story. If you do go to somewhere like Pennypack searching for turkeys, the sight of these massive birds was unlikely even recently. Though turkeys had roamed a huge swath of America, with the one-two punch of overhunting and deforestation, only 30,000 turkeys gobbled across 18 states by 1900; the animal had disappeared completely from Canada, New England, New York, and agricultural states like Indiana. While Pennsylvania was the northernmost state on the East Coast to retain a wild turkey population, there were none in Philadelphia or its suburbs.

So the wild turkey almost met the same fate as the dodo and passenger pigeon. Happily, three things altered its future. Too many hunters in too many parts of the country let wildlife agencies know they valued wild turkeys. Turkey hunters are a passionate lot, and whether or not you hunt or believe in animal rights, turkeys are here, in part, because of pressure from hunters. Second, wildlife managers learned how to use relic populations of wild turkeys in captive breeding programs—and re-introduced newly hatched turkeys to their former haunts.

And finally, over the last decades, our forests have been slowly regenerating over the years, turkeys rediscovering new, viable habitat. Creatures of the edge, they crave forests for cover and nesting spots, fields and meadows for seeds and insects to eat. As their habitat returned, so did they. Today, turkeys nest in all but two Pennsylvania counties, Delaware and Philadelphia, and I wouldn’t be surprised if nesting turkeys return to my Schuylkill Center sometime soon.

The National Wild Turkey Federation now estimates some seven million turkeys range across the U.S., and National Audubon christened it one of the “10 Creatures We Saved” in its centennial celebrations a few years back.

On Thursday, as turkeys decorate our tables, be thankful for one of the too-few conservation success stories we share, the return of the wild turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Naturalist Mike Weilbacher directs the Schuylkill Center and can be reached at mike@schuylkillcenter.org.

But goldenrod unfortunately blooms at the same time as ragweed, a wind-pollinated nightmare that pumps trillions of pollen spores into the sky, praying one lands on another ragweed. Instead, it lands in your nose, and ACHOO! So ragweed is the culprit, its nondescript flowers allowing it to float under the radar screen—and goldenrod gets the bad press.

It’s a shame, because goldenrod just happens to be one of the most important plants of the seasonal year. As the growing season begins to wind down, insect life is at its peak—butterflies and bees, aphids and ants, the creatures that literally hold up ecosystems as the base of food chains, have had the entire spring and summer to go through multiple generations. Just as they are at their population’s peak, summer wildflowers begin winding down, and these insects need food for their last hurrah before winter.

Enter goldenrod. Like the wild version of the crocus evolved to be the sole source of nectar and pollen for Eurasian insects in the first moments of spring, goldenrod has evolved to take up the rear of the floral parade, among the very last wildflowers to bloom. So when you enter a goldenrod field in early fall, you will see the flowers literally abuzz with activity. Butterflies of all kinds will be nectaring on the flowers, including Monarchs heading south to Mexico. On a stop at Morris Arboretum in September to check out the goldenrod meadow, at least six butterfly species could be seen nectaring at one time, including two different kinds of swallowtails. A hummingbird moth, a beautiful butterfly cousin—a day-active moth that hovers over flowers like a hummingbird—trolled one corner of the meadow. Many beetles were crawling all over the floral heads to nibble on pollen grains, a great source of protein. Honeybees, bumblebees, flies of all kinds were working the blooms; spiders and praying mantises were stalking the other insects. Dragonflies cruised above the field, picking off any of the flying insects they could. Sparrows worked the field for seeds; kingbirds patrolled the edge for flying insects.

This is a goldenrod field at this time of year: a critical feeding station for literally thousands of species.

But it’s also the last chance café. Goldenrods and their other fall collaborators like asters and ironweeds will bloom deep into the autumn—and then the flower season is over. No more pollen; no more nectar. Oh, there will be seeds available for seedeaters in a meadow throughout the winter, and there are no shortage of seed-eating critters, but for butterflies and bees, this is it, their golden moment in the sun.

Goldenrods and their kin are especially adapted for this season. Insects are intensely cold-blooded (listen, for example, to katydids calling their name loudly at night in big three-syllable chirps; the frequency of their song is directly correlated to the temperature). As the days cool down, it becomes harder and harder for big-bodied bumblebees to work the field searching for pollen and nectar. So the goldenrods have compensated by evolving clustered floral bouquets, bunching their flowers closely together into groups, giving bees a target-rich energy-efficient pollen-collecting experience—a bee simply walks along a goldenrod stalk and encounters dozens and dozens of flowers. In turn, the bees oblige the goldenrod by making sure they are happily pollinated to produce next year’s seeds—a great exchange for both.

There’s even a fly that lays its egg in the stem of the goldenrod, chemicals in its ovipositor causing the stem to swell and grow an almost cancer-like ball. The fly’s larva sits inside that stem’s swelling ball, hiding during the cold winter while eating the walls of its home. But chickadees and downy woodpeckers have discovered this secret, and peck open goldenrod ball galls to get at the little maggot hiding inside.

There are six million stories in the goldenrod city. And none involve hay fever.

Happily, goldenrod has begun to rise in public opinion: I’ve seen it included in fall bouquets at flowers shops, and garden centers often include cultivars in their native plant sections. In your garden, it can be tall and it can take over, but it does extend your blooming season as late as Thanksgiving—not a bad run. And it is one critically life-saving plant in the fall season.

Just ask the nearest honeybee.

Mike leads a goldenrod workshop and field trip for Morris Arboretum on Saturday, October 19; visit morrisarboretum.org for more information. A version of this essay originally appeared in The Main Line Times.